Second-year Daniel Leamy would have had one hell of a Wednesday night after winning last week’s OUSA Finance and Strategy Officer by-election by a razor-thin five vote margin. Copping 50.74% of the votes, Daniel beat out his opponent, none other than Critic Te Arohi Bachelor Joel Tebbs, 172 votes to 167.
The win follows concerns from some that Joel may have had an unfair advantage in the election with the publicity leg-up of appearing in Critic’s popular new column. Guess he will just have to focus his attention on being husband material.
Speaking to his election victory the following day, Daniel (humbly adorned in his Speight’s kit) said, “Don’t know how I pulled that one out of the bag. I thought I was going to get smoked.” Critic queried Daniel about his big plans for the role, with the freshly-minted Exec member replying, “I’m not too sure yet.” The pile of paperwork that sat in front of him said otherwise.
Prior to the by-election closing, a candidate forum was held in the Main Common Room at midday last Wednesday. It was hosted by Pols Rep Liam, who asked Daniel and Joel questions probing their understanding of the position, their plans for the role, and their dedication to Excel spreadsheets (Joel reckoned he averaged ten hours a week).
The candidates verbally sparred at the forum for votes before a crowd of students eating their lunch and trying to watch the Olympics coverage that played behind them. Introducing himself, Daniel told the crowd, “In a casual setting, I love a yarn.” Beyond this, Daniel platformed his campaign on “managing the books really well” and hit audiences with magic words: “Student bars, bring them back.” Yes, king.
Crucially, Daniel also pointed out that as a second-year, he promised to represent younger students in a largely older Exec. He pointed out that the lack of representation was one of the reasons students may have been detached from OUSA. “They might know it but they don’t care at all […] they don’t realise that decisions made by the Exec actually affect them.”
Daniel acknowledged that “four months is not enough time” to make any real dent with the role. “You can plan a direction but you can’t action it. I’d definitely be reapplying next year if I got in.” Fighting words. Daniel is a fan of Critic, giving the magazine and pals across the way Radio One a shout-out for engagement efforts, and reckons a healthy dose of graphs are the way to go in order to make the work of the role more accessible.
With a slam of her gavel (only brought out for special occasions) OUSA President Keegan welcomed the new FSO to his first Exec meeting last Thursday morning following his success.